Hector Barreto, who has headed the Small Business Administration since the Bush Administration was elected is leaving, reports the New York Times. And while he has had some bad publicity in the last year, he’ll still be a popular figure with his agency’s clients.

Under his administration, the agency was facing cuts but has still managed to expand loan and advice services, at least in Nevada. Barretohas taken a few hits for being so slow in getting money out to businesses wrecked by Hurricane Katrina and post-mortems on loan programs pushed through in the wake of 9/11 have been far from flattering. In fact, they show that the government was giving money away with both hands to anyone who would sign a loan agreement.

But that just highlights the basic dilemma of any SBA Administrator. Congressmen want two incompatible goals from the agency. They want a very liberal loan policy so backers and potential backers at home are happy with the agency’s “performance” in helping their businesses but when those liberal policies backfire it’s the agency that gets the blame. And getting money out quickly after a national disaster and good government accountability are two incompatible goals.

It’s just common sense that if the SBA is pumping money into the local economy, all kinds of businesses will get in line no matter how remote the problems were from the terrorist attacks. But dog bites man and Congressmen will be hypocritical.

Barreto will be heading the Latino Coalition, a Washington-based pro-business advocacy group.